Microsoft has announced a sweeping set of deals with approximately 40 content …

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Microsoft has announced a series of deals which will bring around 40 established media outlets to the Xbox 360 console. The list is long and varied and includes HBO Go, Bravo, Comcast, Crackle, SyFy, and more. The entire list can be seen on Major Nelson's blog, with information on which properties will be available in which regions, and which will require an Xbox Live Gold account. This is an impressive announcement and should help make the Xbox 360 a more powerful force in home entertainment, not just games.

What's unclear is how each media company will offer their content on the system. Some may give up their on-demand services, while others may allow live streaming, and subscription channels will most likely continue to require a standard subscription to the channel via your cable package before you're allowed to watch the content on your console, which would act as your cable box. The real power Microsoft is offering with the 360 is the ability to unify these content providers under one large umbrella.

"Gone are the days of managing a handful of remote controls, trying to remember what movies are available from what service, and hunting back and forth across television inputs," Microsoft explained in a statement released today. "Using voice search with Bing on Xbox, easily look across a variety of branded services and play the programming you want without ever raising a finger. Having trouble finding last night’s episode of “The Office”? It’s now only a voice command away. Just say “Xbox, Bing, ‘The Office,’” and Xbox finds it."

Instead of digging across all the media outlets you have access to looking for a single piece of content, the console itself can do that for you, effectively piling all the different movies and television programs into one big pool that's easily searched. While there are bound to be more details and limitations announced before all this content is added to the system—which is expected to take place before the holidays—Microsoft is making serious moves in the world of entertainment.